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Self-education

From
Katrina Aarts

I read your special on teenagers with great interest, particularly the feature on sex education (5 March, p 44).

I fear that both sex educators and abstinence advocates are missing the point. Sex is excruciatingly embarrassing to teenagers. Sitting in a room full of your peers staring at a diagram of how to correctly fit a condom does not encourage learning. If the teacher is attractive, the whole business is acutely embarrassing. If the teacher is unattractive, it becomes burlesque.

The only solution is information – with privacy. Teens are enormously curious about sex. As a 16-year-old I found …